Day 59, Bocas Del Toro, Panama

So once again im a tad behind on blog entries but in this installment i plan to do 3 entries. First is Bocas Del Torro. The last entry left us in Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica. We met up with the two sisters from texas who we would be travelling with from that point on.
******oh note to everyone on malaria pills out there----- do not, i repeat do not take the pills the day after drinking! even if you eat breakfast, i had the pleasure of being sick for 24 hours after taking my pills even after i had eaten a full breakfast. Not just nausea and cramps but full visuals and vivid dreams. Thats what i get for drinking a whole 6 pack to myself and then having more beer and tequila the night before. I guess i learnt my lesson well.
ok back to the blog, we left for the costa rica/panama border early in the morning, we had a few problems catching the right bus in the right direction, it apparantly drives through puerto viejo every 30 minutes however the bus driver wont stop to tell you what direction you are going in. So the process involved a whole group load of random people chasing after random buses trying to ask where the hell it was going. We finally got on the right bus and then went on the road from hell with metre sized potholes and bumps, on top of that we had the wonderfull sound of squeaking breaks from the bus, and the back of the bus literally sounded like it was being ripped apart as we hit every bump. That morning we had left early because the border crossing is kind of tricky. We were told its the easier of the two to get to panama however the woman who stamps your passport goes on a lunch break between 11-12 costa rica time and 12-1 panama time so essentially shes eating lunch from 11-1 and if you dont get there outside of that time your screwed and have to sit on the heat on a gravel road and wait. We arrived near the border crossing at 10:30 in the town of Sixoala, we were all disoriented and of course there was some local young panamanian man who hopped on our bus and like the pied piper started singing us a tune "hello ladies and gentlemen this is the border crossing, most of you do not know what to do, you must follow me, i takeyou there, i take you there safely, i get you through everything" so what do we do, we followed him of course! This border is interesting because you get to walk across a bridge on foot. We follow the pied piper across a bridge after filling out a panama tourist ticket, we arrive and we find out europeans dont have to pay to enter panama but americans and canadians do, so we go through that line, then we gotta visit the big mama, and she literally grabs your passport stares at you for a few minutes, squints, hums and haws and then STAMP she stamps your passport. From that point on we are herded to a tourist van, squeezed into it, then the next think you know the pied piper says "here you are this van will take you to the port town to get to bocas, now ive helped you alot give me money" so of course we have to pay him!! So the van takes us to a tiny town and we arrive at a river/marsh. We get into a water taxi and then begins our journey of leaving earth, the boat ride was one of the most amazing experiences of myt rip. You are riding through wetlands, narrow passages among floating water lilies, you pass by huts on the sides, local boatmen in their carved out tree canoes, then next thing you know you hit the ocean and all you see is royal blue water around you. The boat ride lasted approximately 45 minutes until we reached bocas del torro. Now del torro is part of an archipegelo of islands. Its a wicked town, definately where tourists go but its got a great carribean vibe and the locals are very nice. The only problem with Bocas was that they had a water shortage! so what does that mean you say, well that means im staying in a hostel with 18 people in my wing, one bathroom, so what happens the water stops running, so the toilet doesnt flush, you cant have a shower, you cant wash your hands, you cant wash the dishes you get my drift. The worst part is the bar in our hostel, since the toilets were horrible drunk people were coming into our wing to use our bathroom. NOT FUN! We even had to take group showers when we did have some water, all fully clothed of course.
On saturday night we went to a bar called shipwrecked, and its the most amazing bar i have ever been in. You walk in through the entrance and you are walking on what appears to be skinny boardwalks, there are two areas of music, one area plays electronica and you dance in the sand, the other area is on a large platform on the water where you dance on a dock under a huge thatched roof, everything is wide open, no walls anywhere, then there are tiny boardwalks going out to the water and there are areas that you can jump in the water for a dip if you like (clothing is optional), it was so awesome, we danced all night! That night i learned how to merengue, and i honed my salsa and reggae skills!
The highlight of bocas for me and for everyone i was with was we took a water taxi to isla bastimentos, (for anyone going to bocas you have to go to this island and head to playa wizard). The water taxi dropped us off at a village on the island, where from that point you hike over the island to the other side. We essentially walked through these families back yards, it was pretty neat though, all you hear is reggae music, you see little kids running around in their underwear, carribean culture to the max!, we did this grueling hike that lasted a good 30 minutes in plus 30 degrees over the island then you are walking in a valley that resembles a tropical rainforest. Then you start to hear the ocean, and next thing you know through the trees you see ice blue water with powder white sand. The best part was we were the only ones on this beach, there were about 10 of us that hiked to get there. The beach was in a cove so there were no waves, there were no rocks, seaweed, or shells in the water. Just crystal clear like you would see in a travel magazine. So i spent the majority of the day floating in the water, or napping on the beach. It was a highlight for all of us.
I wish i had been able to spend more time on bocas, but the water shortage was really getting to us, and we had booked an amazing snorkeling trip the following morning and we wake up and its pouring rain, its pouring in the place where it hasnt rained in like a month. So it doesnt let up by noon and we decide to pack up our gear and leave to head to panama city.

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